Its interface is definitely cumbersome by Java standards - but through it you gain a lot of control over performance. String ops are painful because you are cloning your memory over and over, and if you used NSMutableString instead, you'd get a much nicer interface as a result.

If ever in Cocoa you think to yourself "man, this API is really awkward", Google it, you might find that you're not using it right. It certainly worked for me.

You can't really call it a step backwards, since it's been around for 20 years, long before many other dynamic languages like Ruby and Python. But irrespective of time, there are a few annoyances compared to at least Ruby (I wouldn't say it's worse than Java though).

The pointers aren't such a big deal, as long as you don't try to use the math operators on them. You just have to remember the "*" in declarations. Remember, objects in most dynamic languages are "pointers", you just don't have access to the raw bits.

BTW, Objective-J solves the problems you mentioned (no raw pointer access, no header files or needing to declare things multiple times, the "+" operator does string concatenation and regexes are built in). Of course it's mostly for client side web apps, rather than native apps (though Cappuccino works in Adobe AIR...)

I consider it a step backwars because Apple is forcing us to use it (again). Why not let a 20 year old language that hasn't aged well rest in peace?